Energy Pie in the Sky

One of my favorite old folk tunes has always been Joe Hill’s The Preacher and the Slave, with it’s memorable line “Work and pray, live on hay, you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.”

And so it may be with these energetically imaginative sky soaring wind turbines, but heck, we need some good news these days and there may be some spinning off one or the other of these ideas into genuine, here-and-now pie in the sky.

The Magenn Power Air Rotator System

SkyWindPower

and others, covered by David Baker in a front page SF Chronicle story, and here at WorldChanging.com

There are all sorts of things to be considered, of course: the effect on airborne critters, the weight of the tethers, the safety if tethers fray, or the high altitude device falls. Some, however, already look good-to go in small scale, low-altitude, relief situations — to get electricity into areas following tsunami and earthquake disasters, for local health and rescue work.